"The license plate recognition system is a necessary and important tool for the police. Just as important is the trust Estonian people place in our tools and principles," Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) Director General Egert Belitšev said in a press release. "Although the police have used license plate recognition cameras for years to detect offenses and have installed them in cooperation with local governments, we have clearly spoken too little about this publicly and failed to keep the topic visible in people's minds. To ensure that the police's current procedures comply with all up-to-date legal standards and to propose clearer regulations for license plate recognition if needed, I have initiated a comprehensive analysis of the issue within the PPA."

The internal review, launched Thursday, will assess the overall use of the license plate recognition system in the PPA, including its legal basis and the logging of access to usage data, the agency's press office reported.

According to Belitšev, the most significant benefit of license plate recognition for police is its role in solving serious crimes in real time. "I understand people's concerns about privacy and the police's responsibility to safeguard that data. At the same time, license plate recognition is sometimes the only lead to clarify a case that has seriously shaken public sense of security — or to send a clear message, for instance, to Lithuanian car thieves that Estonia is not worth the risk. Here, we must find a balance: people should have confidence that their rights are not being excessively infringed, while the police must retain the ability to uncover even the most carefully concealed crimes," he said.

The internal review is set to be completed within one month.

The PPA uses public cameras equipped with license plate recognition technology, which are primarily located on highways and at major traffic junctions. The cameras detect a vehicle's license plate and capture a photo of it. This image is stored in the police database in a de-identified form. Every query made to the database is logged and the logs are retained even after the images themselves are deleted.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!